


Food for Thought

by ChewiesGirl (madametango)



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, star wars AU - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Food
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 20:49:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12615200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madametango/pseuds/ChewiesGirl
Summary: Photo journalist Jyn is looking to relax and eat a burrito or two on a working holiday in Australia with her best friend Leia but a trip to the local Mexican restaurant brings a blast from the past in the shape of a handsome chef with hidden talents and agendas.AU – Jyn Erso is a world-weary photographer and Cassian Andor is the lost love of her life who isn't so lost.





	Food for Thought

**Author's Note:**

> A little Au that came to me after a day of watching cooking shows and reading fan fiction!!

THE air was warm, the drinks were cold and best friends Leia and Jyn were on holidays.  
Okay it was a busman’s holiday for the intrepid travel journalist and photojournalist, but a holidays’ a holiday Leia had argued when she’d thrown her skimpy gold bikini into her suitcase what seemed like a couple of hours ago. Though Jyn was, as always, more concerned with making sure all her lenses and filters made the trip then what she was going to wear.  
Sure, they’d done a few trips like this before but never to Australia and never for more than a few days. They had a month in the antipodeans and both were keen to make the best of it. They were enjoying the change of pace, just six months ago they had been working in warzones for Rebel Magazine and now here they were – sipping margaritas around the pool at one of the swankiest Gold Coast resorts. The beach was just metres away and for once no-one was trying to bomb them and they were out of fatigues and into sarongs and bikinis.   
And better than that Alliance Media, their new employers, were picking up the tab. Not that they were going to do anything outrageously expensive and of course they were guest of various tourism boards so there wouldn’t be a lot of the bill to pick up.  
But all that could start tomorrow.  
Today was about relaxing.  
No one was trying to kill them; the sun was shining, and the Australian men were damn fine.  
And better than that – the drinks were ice-cold!  
“Oh, margarita’s always make me feel like Mexican food,” Jyn said looking over her sunglasses and the lime green “kiwifruit” concoction she was drinking to her journo mate Leia. She really should take a picture of this drink even if it was just on her phone to send to Bodhi and the boys back in the subs department. But, then, she was too relaxed (a rare occurrence) and she really couldn’t be arsed.  
Leia groaned.  
“This is Australia – we should be taking in the culture – eating the cuisine!!” she said, sipping her mango daquiri.   
“They have a cuisine?”  
“Yeah Rick Stein – called it Mediterrasian – a fusion of Asian and the Mediterranean.”   
Jyn sighed.   
“Well if Rick Stein said it, it must be true!” she said taking another sip of her drink.   
“I’m sorry I can’t help it – margarita’s mean Mexican food and we passed a nice little Mexican Cantina about a block south when we were coming into the hotel and now I NEED a burrito or this whole day is going to be a bust!”   
“Well we can’t have that!” Leia laughed. “But I know you – Mexican food leads to Mexican beer or worse still – tequila shots and we have to meet Mara at 9am sharp tomorrow morning!”  
Jyn sighed. Leia’s twin brother had come out to Australia a year ago to “find himself” and was now teaching yoga and reiki in Byron Bay just an hour or so south of the Gold Coast. That’s why Leia had decided to start their trip here and why they were spending a whole week on the Coast, seeing the sites and taking in the views. Why they had flown half way around the world on a redeye to get here. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Luke’s girlfriend Mara Jade was some hotshot member of Gold Coast Tourism and had teed up their entire visit including plenty of great things for Jyn to photograph – without all the usual research and trial-and-error of their normal tours. No this would be a doddle – the magazine would get all the pictures they needed, Gold Coast tourism would get plenty of great publicity and Jyn and Leia would have it easy for a change. God knows they needed it. They’d been caught up in too many wars, too many battles, they deserved an easy life and not everyone could afford to do what Luke was doing and stare at their navels for a living.  
“It’s all good – I’m too tired to party too hard tonight,” Jyn assured her friend. Leia shook her head, she’d known the amazing award-winning war photographer Jyn Erso, too long and too well to believe that one but she wasn’t about to clip her wings. No Jyn had lost too many contacts, too many people including her own adoptive father to take life either quietly or lightly. Jyn Erso and Leia Organa had both learned that life is too short to waste drinking bad beer and hanging out with bad men (yeah Leia had learned that one the hard way). No, this trip was what they both needed to forget the past and move forward with the future.   
Despite Jyn’s desperate need for food It took another 20 minutes for the pair to finish their cocktails and afternoon by the pool and head back to their unit. They’d been given a 10th story apartment overlooking both the pool and the ocean. Not the best suite but certainly not bunk beds at the local Backpackers. They each had their own bedroom complete with Queen-sized bed and ensuite as well as full cooking facilities it was a step-up from some of the bombed-out roach-motels they’d stayed at over the years – a big step up and both reveled in being able to take long, proper showers and use some of the complimentary products. A big basket of local produce had been waiting for them on the dining room table when they arrived, and they had been keen to divide them up.   
Yes, this was the life.  
By the time they walked out of their hotel suite – the pair looked and felt like new women, tired but able to shake off the 20 plus hour flight. Jyn, particularly seemed to have a new lease on life – something that always scared Leia.   
In fact, her friend was positively buzzing.  
She wondered, uncharitably, if there had been some chemical enhancement, some artificial stimulant but she soon brushed that thought away. Jyn had been clean for months now – clean of the addiction that had started in warzones – started when she had seen more dead bodies than anyone ever should. That was the good thing about being the journalist, you didn’t always have to see the bad things. You could stand back and interview without having to really really see. But the photographer was on the front-line with only a lens between them and the death and destruction. It was a lot for anyone to cope with and Jyn had coped the only way she could. But that was behind her. A short stint in a medical facility and a lot of counselling and she was starting to feel and act like she had when they first met as young cadets. Her addiction was behind her well at least Leia hoped it was. She certainly looked better on the outside – at least 10 years younger than she had (which was way more than her 28 years of actual living). Tonight, she had her long brown hair tied back in a messy ponytail and just the minimum of make up on her well-defined cheeks and lips. Her dress was light and floaty in a lime green Leia would never be game to wear but somehow it suited Jyn down the ground and was a vast improvement on the khaki and tan trousers and tees she could usually be found in. In fact, Leia couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Jyn in a dress! Hell, they had to buy Jyn’s black bikini and sarong in the hotel giftshop this morning (Leia’s gold one was bought by her slimy ex-boyfriend and was, frankly, the only decent thing to come out of that relationship). She wondered if the dress Jyn was wearing had been another purchase when she wasn’t looking, it wasn’t Jyn’s usual thing, but it went perfectly with the slave-girl sandals that they both loved and were both wearing. And while her friend had gone for lime, Leia herself had favoured a similar baby-doll style dress in white cheesecloth. White wasn’t a colour you were able to wear much in a warzone and she relished the chance to throw off her own “work uniform” – a sensible jacket and shorts or pants and just be a woman.  
The air outside the hotel was warm and barmy but the light breeze made the short walk down the street pleasant enough.   
It was a warm spring night and despite being a Sunday lots of young families were out and about. In Jyn’s mind there were potential photographs everywhere and she wished she’d brought her Nikon. Families laughing and playing together, young children licking ice-creams as big as their heads trying to keep ahead of the melt unsuccessfully and having to lick the drips running down their arms.   
It was a long way from the war zones where children had little to eat and feared for their lives.  
All that seemed like another world here.  
A nightmare.  
Here they were safe.  
Here they were relaxed.  
Here they could get into the good sorts of trouble – something that Leia seemed intent on doing as she grabbed Jyn’s arm and steered her towards a vacant lot filled with food vans and people. It was some sort of twilight food market and Jyn groaned. She wanted Mexican food and she want it now and without her camera in her hand, a market was just a distraction.   
“Come on, it’s on the way and it’ll be fun,” Leia urged dragging the reluctant Jyn by the arm, in an action that showed her she had no choice in the matter.   
“Fine,” Jyn huffed pulling her phone from her pocket, if she couldn’t take shots with the big camera she would, at the very least, get some pics.  
Leia laughed as her friend set up the phone.   
“You’re never off duty, are you?”   
Jyn smiled and shook her head.  
“Guess not!” she said rolling her eyes as Leia pulled a face for her phone camera (yes that’s definitely one for the boys and for their editor Mon) and dragged her deeper into the melee of people. The sights, sounds and smells were amazing. Buskers and fire-twirlers held court while food vans filled with ice-cream, Dutch pancakes and cuisine from all over the place lined the outer-rim of the lot though no Mexican – Jyn noted. It was a veritable cornucopia of aromas and was making Jyn even more hungry.  
Most of the vans were newly painted and beautifully presented but at the far end stood an old-fashioned caravan in Shades of Grey (and not in the good way).  
“Oh god look at that bucket of bolts,” Leia said pointing towards the monstrosity.  
“Do you think they just leave it here all the time – there is no way that thing is road worthy – it would break down getting over the curb.”   
“Hey watch it! This is the fastest and best equipped van on the lot!” came a voice from the deep – well deep inside the food truck.  
“On what planet?” Leia said straining to see who had made the comment. However, her view was blocked by a large rather hairy man who looked like he had just come out of the hills and was probably one of Luke’s students.  
The big man – who was busy handing out organic orange juice and strange looking pocket curries to the waiting throng – moved aside and there he was, brown hair, brown eyes and smart mouth.  
He was handsome, breathtakingly so but his smart mouth made him less so and maybe a little more.  
“This one sweetheart!” he said he drawled in an accent Leia couldn’t quite place part Corelian part mid-west American, part rogue.  
Leia scoffed.   
“Can’t see it myself!” her own hazel eyes flashing with mischief.  
“And who are you – the queen of the planet,” he jibed.  
“Yeah something like that.”  
He laughed.  
“Well your worshipfulness – not only is the Falcon here roadworthy – it serves the best food south of the equator = isn’t that right Chewie?”   
The hairy man smiled – his teeth a stark white against his shaggy beard and equally shaggy hair (which was surely breaking at least six health codes) – but said nothing. Clearly not wanting to be dragged into this. Jyn put her hand up to her mouth – trying not to laugh – which became considerably harder when she caught the twinkling brown eyes of “Chewie”.  
Leia scoffed.  
“Once you try our food you’ll never eat anywhere else Princess,” the other man said seductively – caught in her hazel eye. She was beautiful, beautiful and feisty – just how he liked his women. Out of his league too – but he liked a challenge.  
“Well just as well we have a date with the Mexican Cantina down the road then!” Leia said huffily though Jyn guessed that she wasn’t as pissed off as she made out.  
The caravan man was good looking to say the least and just the right amount of scruffy in Leia’s book. Jyn knew her type – she’d seen it often enough. And this man was definitely her type. Her friend was walking away but she knew they’d both be seeing the scruffy man again.   
“So, I’m Han, we finish in an hour and I’ll have a Corona and a beef burrito,” he called after her.  
Leia gave him the finger and kept walking.  
Jyn turned and waved.  
“I’m Jyn and that’s Leia and that’s her way of saying “see you there!” she smirked running to catch up with her friend.   
Leia punched her playfully in the arm.   
“I’ll get you for that Erso!” she groaned as she shook her head, but her eyes were glittering and alive with mischief.  
“You can thank me later!” she smirked as they walked towards the restaurant.  
It was quiet at the cantina - Buen Provecho. Decorated in green, yellows, reds and whites the little restaurant had plenty of outdoor dining and looked more like a tropical garden than a restaurant. Each table carried several candles but Jyn guessed they were more for keeping mosquitoes and midges away than any real ambience. But the food coming out of the kitchen at the back looked and smelled amazing. The ordered a beer each and some dips and waited for Han and Chewie who were surprisingly on time.   
Food was ordered and while Han and Leia continued to drink and flirt, Jyn and Chewie ate and ate. It was so good. Too good if she lived on the Gold Coast Jyn was certain she’d be ten tonne Tessie in no time. She thought she’d died and gone to culinary heaven, hell she hadn’t tasted Mexican food this good since……………..well for a long time.   
After eating her way through the dips and two burritos, a serving of the best rice she’d ever had, a big salad and a bean dish or two, Jyn was groaning like she had had the best orgasm ever – a foodgasm.  
She excused herself from the others.  
She had to meet this chef.  
This culinary wizard.  
She went back to the kitchen.  
And there he was.  
Not some crazy Australian.  
No.  
There stood Cassian Andor.  
The Mexican photojournalist and activist.   
The love of Jyn Erso’s life.  
The man she thought was dead, killed in a bombing two years ago in Scarif.   
She stumbled from the kitchen before he could see her.  
It was him.  
It was definitely him.  
She wanted to puke.  
To run.  
Her head was spinning, she had to find Leia she had to – she didn’t know what she had to do but whatever it was she needed to do it now. Leia looked up as she approached, suddenly worried.  
“What’s wrong Jyn – you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said trying to lighten the mood.  
All Jyn could do was nod as she crumbled to the floor.


End file.
